James looked at the two figures in the security footage that RinRin was showing them. Dressed as traditional samurai, they fit right in with all the other cosplayers in the cafe. One was a man, and the other was a woman, but they looked so alike that they might have been twins. Brother and sister.

  Or rather, James realised, a matched set.

  “I thought we were safe,” Suki complained. “Why did we go through all this if we were just going to get caught?”

  “Never underestimate the Old Man,” Kaguya said through gritted teeth. “He always has new tricks. And we’re not caught yet.”

  She turned to RinRin. “I need you to hold them and escort us out the back door. These won’t be the only forces he’s sent.”

  “Understood,” RinRin said. She brought her hand to her face and spoke into her lacy cuff. “I need a super-sticky sweet reception for our guests. The princess will be making a milk delivery.”

  She looked back at Kaguya. “Once the shooting starts, we can expect a heavy police presence. Public Security Intelligence has been on alert for a while now.”

  “I’m aware,” Kaguya said dismissively. “The strawberries have been getting tips from someone. My escape route takes them into account.”

  “Strawberries?” Mitsue said.

  “Wait, we’re going? I thought we were going to fight them?” Harue, still disguised as an anime samurai, still shovelling ice cream in her mouth, pushed forward. “I haven’t finished my dessert!”

  “You can do what you like,” Kaguya said coldly. “But as soon as the guns start firing, Public Security will lock this entire district down.”

  “Surely it will take a little while for them to coordinate a response,” Mitsue said.

  “No, they started coordinating as soon as they announced the cosplay event,” Kaguya countered. “A high-risk event like this—they knew something was going to happen.”

  “Oh, the police,” Harue said, waving her spoon dismissively, “Like they can—oh, wait, you guys.”

  She frowned at Mitsue. “You can evade a little police cordon, can’t you?”

  “Perhaps,” Mitsue admitted. “But not with these two accompanying me.”

  “But I haven’t finished my ice cream!”

  RinRin stepped forward, producing a small slip of paper from her sleeve.

  “Young Master, please accept this voucher for a free Magical Sparkle Sundae, valid at any Sugar Spoon cafe.”

  Harue beamed and took the coupon. “Rin-tan, you’re the best!”

  RinRin gave a cute giggle and then pulled out a compact submachine gun from a pocket in her puffy dress. “Now, if you will all accompany me to the back entrance, honoured guests! Please keep your heads down and your smiles up—Sugar Spoon guarantees full service, even under suppressing fire!”

  James opened his mouth to object, but he couldn’t find the words, in Japanese or English. The cute maid had a submachine gun. Was this normal? Everyone around him seemed to think so, and although James knew that none of them were a good judge of what was ordinary, he couldn’t help feeling that he was the weird one.

  So he just followed along as RinRin led them through the service space of the building to a door guarded by two more maids. They had silly grins plastered on their faces and not-so-silly assault rifles in their hands. Some part of James thought that the guns should have been painted pink, but they were the same steel grey of guns everywhere. Both maids curtseyed as they approached, using one hand to hold their skirts and the other to hold their guns.

  “This is PekoPeko Parfait and Mimi éclair,” RinRin said.

  “No contact, onee-san,” Mimi said. “No sign of any trouble.”

  RinRin just nodded. PekoPeko opened the door, and Mimi bustled out, gun held at the ready. The other followed right after.

  “Sparkling clean!” The call came from outside.

  “This way, honoured guests,” RinRin said and led them outside.

  Service roads in Japan were a lot cleaner than they were back in America, and this service road was cleaner than most. It was still a road that wasn’t meant for the public to see, snaking behind all the buildings to allow for deliveries of food and the disposal of trash. It wasn’t nice.

  Kaguya strode down it like she lived there. RinRin walked daintily at her side, gun raised, eyes watchful.

  “Where to, hime-sama?”

  “Two lefts, then a right, then we cut through a building,” Kaguya answered. “We can go on our own from that point.”

  “Sparkling clear,” RinRin replied. The other two maids had fallen in behind the group, assault rifles held at the ready.

  “Is this really going to work?” Suki asked nervously. “Master won’t have sent just one hunter team.”

  At that moment, just before they reached the first left turn, shots rang out from behind them. They were a fair distance away, but the clatter of automatic weapons was unmistakable. The screams that came after were also faint, but clearly audible.

  Everyone paused at the sounds.

  “It’s started,” Kaguya stated. She started moving again, and the rest of them followed her around the corner. “Don’t worry, I have a plan.”

  “Your plans are doomed to failure, fashion victims!”

  A male voice came from above. RinRin pointed her weapon, but she saw nothing to shoot at. Kaguya took another step forward and yelled back.

  “Who are you, and why do you think you can foil my plans?”

  “We think that, because we are the protectors of Harajuku!” the voice declared.

  “We bring Kawaii Justice to the unbecoming!” a girl's voice called.

  “From the heart of fashion, colour, and dreams—we declare this world too beautiful for your darkness!” another girl shouted.

  “Oh, for—we’re not doing anything to Harajuku!” Kaguya yelled. “We are leaving! And if you get in our way, you’ll regret it.”

  “Do you take us for fools?” yet another voice called out. “Do you think we don’t know what organisation you represent? You’ll learn why you should never have left Akihabara!”

  “Akihabara?” Kaguya asked. “What does that—”

  “Ah, my apologies, hime-sama,” RinRin said. “It seems that we are to blame for this.”

  “Honoured guests!” PekoPeko called out in alarm from behind them. “Please retreat—quickly, quickly, on your feet!”

  She pointed in the direction they were already going, so Kaguya rushed forward. She only stopped when an arrow, glowing golden, screamed down from a nearby rooftop and embedded itself in the street ahead of her.

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  “Not so fast!” A different male voice shouted. “We won’t let you spread your poisonous trade throughout Harajuku!”

  “Poisons!” RinRin exclaimed indignantly. “Sugar Spoon cafe serves only the finest sweetness and fluffy mofu-mofu!”

  There was a flicker of shadows ahead of them. Despite the street being fully lit by sunlight, a young man stepped out of the shadow. He was dressed in a dapper black tuxedo and carried a long cane with a silver handle in his white-gloved hands.

  “We know who you really work for,” he said. He pointed the cane accusingly at Kaguya. “Secret Organisation APRONS!”

  “Aw, fiddlesticks,” Kaguya sighed. “It really is about you. Did you know about these guys, RinRin?”

  “I’m afraid not, hime-sama. One of the reasons for scouting new areas is to find out where the opposition might lie.” RinRin looked disparagingly down her nose at the man in the tuxedo. “I’ve never heard of these people.”

  Another young man jumped down from the rooftop, landing behind the group. He was wearing a bright red cloth coat and had hair that was an even brighter red. He had to be either dying it or using magic. From the axe with glowing runes that he carried, James guessed that it might be the latter.

  “We’ll make you fear our name!” the red youth said. He might have been older than James, but not by much.

  Kaguya shot PekoPeko an annoyed look. “Any reason you pushed us into the middle of them?”

  “More of the… less honoured guests are approaching,” PekoPeko replied.

  Kaguya’s mouth worked, but no sound came out. “We’ve got to move,” she finally said.

  “You’re going nowhere, apronistas!” the tuxedoed man declared.

  RinRin levelled her submachine gun directly at him. “Just who are you people, anyway?” she asked sweetly.

  “We are the defenders of Harajuku!” he asserted.

  “Yes, we got that part—”

  “We bring Justice and Kawaii!”

  This was said by a girl in green who jumped down to stand next to the tuxedoed man. She was wearing a flowing silk dress and carrying a spear. Another woman called out from above.

  “When style meets sparkle—evil trembles before our colours!”

  Then a final voice, also calling from above, stated, “We are Harajuku☆Mahōkei, and we’re about to dump you in the remainder bin!”

  The name seemed to echo around the alleyway, somehow.

  “Oh, that’s not good,” Harue muttered. “Watch out, Kaguya-chan! I think they might be magical girls!”

  Kaguya’s head whipped around to glare daggers at Harue before switching back to the real threat. Harajuku☆Mahōkei, meanwhile, were spluttering with indignation.

  “Did you not just hear us say, Harajuku☆Mahōkei?” the red boy shouted. “We’re not only girls!”

  “Well, excuse me for being a traditionalist,” Harue said blandly. “And for not being as hung up on gender as you seem to be.”

  “You—”

  “This is all irrelevant.”

  A new voice cut through the argument. Deep-pitched and adult in a way that James couldn’t articulate. It brooked no dissent, no uncertainty.

  James looked over to see that two Hunters had come around the corner. Dressed in traditional samurai garb, the perfect lines and sober colours of their haori made Harue, dressed in the same sort of clothing, look like a parody of what a samurai was supposed to be.

  Like the two in the front of the cafe, they were a matched set, a man and a woman. The woman had a bow drawn, and the man had his hand on the hilt of his katana.

  “The woman dressed as a demon and the small child will come with us,” the man stated. “The rest of you are inconvenient witnesses, and very likely to be of a sort that the Master has deemed undesirable. You will all die.”

  There was a pause, as the ragtag group of maids, mahōkei and high school students took in his words. The two hunters also remained still, as if waiting to be obeyed.

  Then, another golden arrow streaked down from the rooftops, and James heard the whine of an electric motor. It was quickly drowned out by the roar of an automatic weapon. A line of fire reached down from the rooftop, aimed directly at the pair of hunters.

  The man contemptuously batted the arrow out of the air, but there were too many bullets to block. James was sure that at least some of them hit the pair, but they didn’t go down. Instead, the female hunter sent her own arrow back where the fire had come from. Her arrow was decidedly non-magical, but a cry of pain from above told James that it was effective.

  “Harajukuuuuu!’ The red boy yelled, running directly at the hunter while brandishing his axe. The runes on it glowed brightly, but the hunter was unimpressed. He stepped into the blow, avoiding the crescent blade and sending a deadly slash right across the boy’s midsection.

  James thought that it was all over for Red, but there was a flash of light and both combatants were flung back a short distance.

  “You won’t… take us down so easily,” Red insisted, but James could tell the mahōkei wasn’t feeling fine.

  The next to move were the green and black mahōkei on his side of the field. The girl in the green dress lunged at RinRin with her spear. RinRin tried to hold her off with a burst from her gun, but leaves sprang into being between them, giving the green girl cover as she closed the distance.

  James didn’t know how leaves blocked bullets, but he supposed magic had something to do with it. He started moving towards them, but the strike was over before he could act. RinRin didn’t make a sound as the speartip plunged into her shoulder. She crumpled to the ground.

  “James!” Suki screamed as he moved towards the fight.

  “Stay behind me,” he commanded, even as his green armour and sword made an appearance. RinRin might be a terrorist, or a violent revolutionary, but he couldn’t let her get stabbed to death in front of him.

  The tuxedoed mahōkei was also rushing forward to attack Kaguya. His cane turned out to hold a sword with a long, narrow blade, which he levelled at the seemingly helpless young girl.

  Kaguya sneered. From her puffy dress, a wicked-looking dagger emerged. With a flick of her wrist, she redirected his rapier to the side, leaving him defenceless as she plunged the dagger into his stomach.

  Shadows gathered around the impact point, somehow preventing the dagger from doing its deadly work.

  “Magical protection?” Kaguya spat. “That won’t save you.”

  James was busy with his own opponent. Stepping over RinRin’s fallen figure, he went on the offensive against the green girl, who seemed surprised at the sight of his armour.

  “I’m the only green warrior in this town!” she blustered. But—at least in his armour—James was stronger and faster and only a little less skilled. Her spear whirled around furiously in an attempt to disengage, but he followed her movements and landed his own blow. It wasn’t a solid hit, but James could see that the green light that protected her was having trouble with whatever his sword did. It started to flicker, and her movements became more desperate.

  The sound of automatic fire started up again, this time from behind him. James imagined it was the other two maids—from the lack of bullets flying around, he guessed they were firing at the hunters.

  “The hunters are the real threat,” Kaguya announced. “I’ll leave these two to you.”

  “Wait, what?” James protested, but Kaguya was already gone. James risked a quick look around.

  Suki was behind him, as she should be. She had her sword out, but didn’t seem inclined to use it. The maids were indeed firing at the hunters, but their targets didn’t seem worse off for it. Harue was back in her school uniform, tails out, flying over the female hunter.

  Mitsue was nowhere to be seen.

  James quickly returned to his own fight, now against two mahōkei. The black one was recovering quickly and looked furious at how he had been dismissed by Kaguya.

  Another burst from the minigun came, but it wasn’t aimed at James.

  At his feet, RinRin groaned. She was bleeding, but still alive. From the look that Black was giving her, he didn’t intend for her to stay that way. But it was the green girl who attacked first. Spears were tricky. She could attack him while holding off, keeping out of his range. James had to get past the tip so he could close and attack.

  He hit, but it left him open to Black’s counterattack. For the first time, James felt something penetrate his armour. The magical sword slid into his side. Instead of pain, James only felt an icy numbness. He jerked away from his attacker, and the sword came out. To his relief, there wasn’t a spray of blood.

  “We can win this,” Black assured his companion. “He can’t beat us two on one.”

  James wanted to ask Suki for help, but at the same time, he didn’t want to put her at risk.

  Better she stay behind me, he thought. Defending her gives me strength.

  An agonised cry came from behind him. It sounded like the red mahōkei, and the alarmed expressions in front of him confirmed it.

  James wanted to gloat, but this was a three-way fight, and Kaguya seemed to think that the hunters were the real threat. Anything between them and Suki was on his side.

  The minigun fired again. James hoped to hell they were hitting the hunters.

  “No!” Suki cried out, almost stopping James’s heart. “Kaguya!”

  He felt as much as heard her running away from him, across the battlefield.

  “No, wait, Suki!” he called out, but he couldn’t look away from his enemy. They both came at him this time. If he could dodge, or back away… but he needed to protect RinRin.

  This time, it was the spear that dug into his lower arm. Somehow, he managed to keep his grip on his sword.

  “RinRin, can you hear me? Can you move?” he asked. “I don’t think I can last much longer.”

  RinRin stirred, but she didn’t respond, not directly. James could hear her faintly muttering “For the pretty-pretty fuwa-fuwa…”, but that wasn’t exactly a response.

  He had to do something. Green’s magical protection was in tatters by now. Surely he could take her down.

  He took a risk and rushed at her. It meant abandoning RinRin, opening her up to attack, but he had to do something.

  He caught Green off guard. She didn’t lose hold of her spear when he smashed it aside, but it was out of line, and that was all that mattered. He bulled forward and slashed at her. There was no skill in the blow, no art, but it worked. The green light flickered and died. She fell back a step, but no blood flowed.

  Then James was dodging desperately, trying to avoid Black’s attack. The thin blade snaked past his ribs as James twisted to avoid it. He managed it, at the cost of his footing. He tumbled, fell to the ground. He tried to roll, to make himself less of an easy target.

  Then the metallic roar of automatic fire sounded right next to him. Bullets tore into the green girl, throwing her back and to the ground.

  James and Black both looked back to where the fire had come from. RinRin was still on the ground, propped up on one elbow. A smoking submachine gun was in her hand.

  “Sugar spoon special service… complete.”